Resources for Teachers

About Service Learning | School-wide Programs | Classroom Resources | External Links

About Service Learning

What are Service Learning and Community Service?
(Adapted from Seattle Parks & Rec. Service Learning FAQ)

Service Learning is a teaching methodology that allows students to learn and apply academic, social and personal skills to improve the community, continue individual growth and become better citizens. Service learning focuses on both the service and the learning and is appropriate for all students and all curricular areas. One of the key components of service learning is structured and systematic reflection.

Community Service is helping the community by choice or through court requirement. Community service may or may not be tied to academics or curriculum and may or may not include some form of reflection.

Each school has its own interpretation of service learning and community service. Before a student can participate in a project, it must be approved by a teacher or faculty member responsible of service hours at your school.

What's needed for graduation?

60 hours of service-learning are mandated by the Seattle Public School District, but your school may require something else. Talk to your school counselor to clarify graduation requirements.

Form used by Seattle Public School students to document service learning hours [pdf]

School-wide Programs

Bicycle Alliance of Washington
The Bicycle Alliance of Washington’s Safe Routes to School programs integrate safety, fitness, health, traffic relief, and environmental awareness in an effort to get more children biking and walking to school. It encourages schools, communities, and local government to create a healthy lifestyle for children and a safer, cleaner environment for everyone. If you want to start a program, increase participation in your community (or simply learn more), this web site can provide the necessary tools and resources to make your program a success.
For more information on the Safe Routes to School program click here.
Cascade Land Conservancy
The Cascade Land Conservancy owns over 90 properties throughout Washington State, which includes diverse lands such as estuaries, wetlands, community open spaces, timberlands, and even a mountain peak. Each property requires consistent and regular monitoring, followed by active maintenance or management to assure that no human health and safety issues exist, there are no encroachments, and the conservation values of the land remain protected forever. Volunteer your class or even your school to become land stewards for a property near your school. This is a great opportunity for learning as well as service projects!
For more information about how you can get your class involved contact us at info@environmental-portal.net.
National Wildlife Federation (NWF)
The National Wildlife Federation offers information on creating a Schoolyard Habitat, and educator’s guides that coincide with the latest Ranger Rick magazine. Schoolyard Habitat sites are great for hands-on learning. Bring concepts "alive" by actively using the habitat site as an outdoor classroom. Students use math skills to map the schoolyard; science as they study photosynthesis; and social studies as they study past land uses of the school site. The schoolyard can be a valuable avenue for teaching and reinforcing curriculum standards and concepts for students.
Find out more about Schoolyard Habitats, and download the Ranger Rick educator’s guides from the NWF website.

Classroom Resources

Seattle Aquarium
Offers fieldtrips, cirriculum kits and classroom visits.
The Seattle Aquarium offers many different programs throughout the year for students grades K-12. You can take your class on a fieldtrip to the Aquarium, have a classroom speaker come to you, check out a learning kit to lead your class yourself, or even participate in special programs such as an overnight at the Aquarium, or a two part fieldtrip that includes a trip to the Aquarium and to the beach. These programs use hands-on activities and inquiry-science experiences are emphasized. Topics and times are seasonal. Fall/winter programs are traditionally not as full as those that take place in spring, which allows students to delve even more deeply into their subjects.
Find out more about the programs offered check out their website here.
The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture
Offers fieldtrips, study collections and teacher workshops.
The Burke Museum welcomes group visits by children and adults of all ages. There are several options for group visits: hands-on discovery tours, guided tours, and self-guided tours. They also offer their Traveling Study Collections, which are portable boxes of scientific specimens and cultural artifacts for all ages, designed to supplement the study of various topics in cultural and natural history. With each changing exhibit, the Burke offers special teacher training workshops. Also, look for teacher workshops on subjects from geology to archaeology.
Find out more about the programs offered check out their website here.
Seattle Parks and Recreation
Offers fieldtrips.
Environmental Stewardship programs are offered at Environmental Learning Centers at Camp Long, Carkeek Park, Discovery Park, and Seward Park. Environmental Stewardship at Seattle Parks means making new friends while learning about your local environment. Individuals and groups of all ages can join one day, overnight, and season-long educational programs. Fulfilling its Education role, Parks is providing programs for nature enthusiasts, homeowners, and folks interested in their environment through a host of venues. From informal to interactive, recreational based programming to special events and fieldtrips, the department's menu of ES programs has something for everybody.
Find out more about the programs offered check out their website here.
Islandwood
Offers fieldtrips.
IslandWood operates as a year-round educational facility staffed with experienced, full-time faculty.
During the school year, IslandWood's primary focus is to provide a 4 day residential School Overnight Program for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students in the Puget Sound region. Students participate in experiential and project-based fieldwork that appeals to many different learning styles and interests. Using the cultural and natural environment as a context, our programs integrate scientific inquiry, technology and the arts. Students spend a majority of their time participating in outdoor field study projects. They also take advantage of state-of-the-art facilities such as multiple learning studios, a fenced garden classroom and greenhouse, "The Living Machine," teams course, and remote field structures. During meals and free time, students engage in activities that promote a sense of community through family-style dining, evening programs, and recreational activities.
In the summers IslandWood offers camp programs for children and families. We welcome school groups from year-round schools to participate in these programs.
Find out more about the programs offered check out their website here.
Klondike Gold Rush Museum
Offers fieldtrips and cirriculum.
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park preserves the story of the 1897-98 stampede to the Yukon gold fields and Seattle’s role in this event. The park offers a glimpse at the stories of adventure and hardship of the gold rush. Take a class fieldtrip to the Klondike Gold Rush Museum to take a step back in time and journey to the gold fields as thousands did in 1897. Education programs are offered by Klondike Gold Rush park rangers, and require advance reservations. Programs are offered from September through the end of May. Also available on the website is "Seattle's Stake in the Klondike Gold Rush", a 3rd - 6th grade integrated (and very interactive) curriculum. This can be adapted upwards to meet middle school requirements.
Find out more about the programs offered check out their website here.
Center for Wooden Boats
Offers fieltrips and classes.
The Center for Wooden Boats has a commitment to expose today's youth to their maritime heritage. Through hands-on, experience-based programs, students become actively engaged in their experience here. From Umiak rides to boat building, from job skills training to sailing lessons, there are myriad opportunities for students to learn at CWB.
For more information check out their website here.
PAWS
Offers fieltrips and classroom visits.
PAWS offers free classroom visits and tours to groups of children anywhere from kindergarten to 12th grade. There are many different classes offered, from a short introduction about PAWS to an in depth series of classes aimed at developing an appreciation animals of all kinds and for humane treatment of animals. These programs usually fill up quickly, so it’s important to reserve your spot 3 to 6 months in advance.
For more information check out their website here.
Mountains to Sound Greenway
Offers fieltrips and classroom visits.
The Greenway Education Program, "Seeking Solutions to Sustain Forests," brings an environmental educator into classrooms in King County schools to teach about the challenge of sustaining a healthy, natural environment in balance with the needs of a growing population. Four different curriculum units are offered for students in grades 5 through 10. You may sign up for an in-class activity with an optional field trip to Tiger Mountain State Forest afterwards. There are no fees for these events, and you may apply for a school bus subsidy.
For more information check out their website here.
UW Botanic Gardens
Offers fieltrips.
Saplings School Programs are inquiry-based, guided science programs conducted at the Washington Park Arboretum. Saplings School Programs introduce students in grades K-12 to plant growth and development, wetland ecology and ethnobotany through a series of 90-minute interactive programs. The Arboretum becomes an “outdoor classroom” for teachers and students as they choose from a menu of Saplings Program topics. All programs feature “hands-on” activities and are aligned with EALRs. Program dates fill quickly; three weeks advance notice is required to reserve a program.
For more information check out their website here.
Seattle Audubon
Offers classroom visits and cirriculum kits.
The Seattle Audubon’s Finding Urban Nature (FUN) programs bring Seattle Public School students in grades 3 to 5 closer to the natural environment outside of their schools and in their neighborhoods. FUN activities facilitate an understanding of environmental connections through hands-on, inquiry- based science. The activities allow students to discover and appreciate birds and nature within their schoolyard habitat throughout the school year.
Education kits and nature slides are available for you to rent to enhance your environmental education and science units. Each kit comes packed with hands-on props, educator information, age-appropriate activities and projects, and an easy to follow program guide.
For more information check out their website here.
The Nature Consortium
Offers classroom visits.
The Nature Consortium offers environmental art classes for youth. Some of the types of art that can be covered include nature printmaking, nature ceramics, masks of nature, mosaic creations, eco arts, and more. Classes can be brought to community events, schools, after-school & vacation programs for a fee.
For more information check out their website here, or email the Nature Consortium at info@naturec.org